Bonding on Ice
by xRae Asakurax
Summary: Winter in Dakota brings an annual tradition for Virgil and Richie, but this year it gets cut a little short unexpectedly. VR slash bordering fluff. Dedicated to InuGurl107


**Rae:** A one-shot dedicated to InuGurl107 as a thank you for a _wonderful_ fanart piece she did for 'For Every Action'. Surprise, love! 8D

For the record, I don't own Static shock. Which is a shame.

Enjoy! x

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Virgil puffed out a lungful of air in a slow, deliberate way, watching the cloud it created from the heat of the exhalation mingling with the coldness of the air outside float upwards as though reaching for the night sky's full moon and dissipate. He rubbed his hand once, twice up and down his arms to warm them slightly, then huffed and allowed a brief crackle of electricity to dance across his body and warm his chilled core. He felt something cold and wet land neatly on his nose, and he brushed at it with a mittened hand before glancing up and feeling a smile curve his lips.

Dakota had fierce winters, there was no denying that. Luckily the weather changed gradually instead of going abruptly from hot summer to freezing winter, so you had time to prepare for it. When it got cold enough, usually around November, December and January, the snow season would start. And not really stop. It started off with blistering snowstorms that were horrendous to be caught out in, but once they had passed Dakota was _beautiful_ to behold. Everything was blanketed in a white sheet of soft, crisp powder, suppressing any and all sounds to the point you could be standing next to the highway and not hear the cars going past. After that there would be random falls of snow that kept the rest from going slushy and brown, some showers light and some showers heavy. This was a light tumble, and Virgil closed his eyes as he stuck out his tongue to catch a few wayward flakes.

So caught up was he in his own world of watching and feeling the snow around he missed entirely the whole reason he was out in biting temperatures by the frozen-over Central Park lake in the first place. Richie watched his friend steadily from the pathway emerging from the forest surrounding the east side of Central Park contentedly, snickering slightly and finally deciding to reveal himself when the mocha teen actually began glowing from his trance-like state.

The sound of a crunching boot behind Virgil snapped the teenage superhero out of his snow-induced reverie and he whipped around to see Richie moving towards him with a soft grin lighting up his face.

"Dude, tone it down on the light show or you might as well scream you're Static from the clocktower roof," he remarked in greeting, and Virgil inexplicably flushed when he realized he must have been doing that glowing thing again. He and Richie had discovered recently that if something made him inordinately content or happy his power tended to manifest itself as a luminous indigo aura around his body, and for whatever reason it embarrassed the heck out of Virgil.

"Sorry, bro. I didn't realize..." Virgil trailed off, shrugging a little helplessly and Richie chuckled, relenting and holding out a clenched hand. Dangling from it were a pair of pale green ice skates, and the mocha teen's face lit up as he wheeled around to collect his own dark blue ones from where he'd laid them while waiting for Richie. He copied the technopath in flopping down to his butt in the snow and pulling a skate on.

There was silence between them as they donned their ice skates, but it was comfortable and familiar. Richie was the first to finish, and managed to haul himself up in a movement that was both clumsy and graceful at the same time. Clumsily graceful... Virgil snorted himself; only Richie would be able to pull that combo off. He slipped to his own feet in a rather less than delicate motion, causing a cackle from the blond already stepping out onto the frozen lake. Virgil shot him a mock-glare and started after the younger man, but suddenly stopped with a thoughtful expression on his face when he reached the ice edge. Richie raised an eyebrow at the hesitation.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten how to skate."

"Oh shut up." Virgil blew a raspberry at the technopath, who grinned unrepentantly. "No, I'm thinking this place is lacking something."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

There was another pause, and Richie could almost see the gears working inside that brain of his best friend. The mocha teen raised his hands and let a few small electric bolts scorch from them, and the blond watched them flare across the space above his head, letting loose an involuntary gasp when the bolts suddenly stopped where they were and expanded out, covering the ice in an ethereal light purple shimmer. Virgil looked pleased and then pushed off out onto the ice.

"You like, Rich?"

"Yeah," breathed the technopath, looking down at his hand and observing the light flicker across it. "What did you do?"

"Charged the air particles," replied Virgil, taking Richie's held-up hand and squeezing it gently before tugging at it. "C'mon, let's skate!"

Richie finally tore his eyes away from the homemade lighting system and set off behind the teen superhero, feeling a little disappointed when Virgil's hand released his but pushing back the urge to snatch it back. He glided easily after Virgil, following him for a bit before peeling off to go around the lake the opposite way. A cheeky grin was thrown at him from the mocha teen when they circled round and coasted towards each other, and Richie answered with a smirk. They lowered body positions and sped up, a game of chicken right up until they both avoided each other at the last possible second. Richie twisted to a smooth stop on the ice, turning in time to see his partner go from cruising backwards to a toe-loop jump, which he managed one and a half rotations of before he came down slightly awkwardly onto the back outside edge like he was supposed to. Richie clapped dutifully, impressed that Virgil had managed to pull it off.

The mocha teen pursed his lips and frowned slightly as he came out of the jump; he was supposed to have done two rotations, not one and a half. That thought disappeared when he heard the muffled clapping of someone applauding with gloves on, and gave his best friend an over-exaggerated bow alongside a bold wink. He moved across to where Richie was standing.

"Nice one," praised the blond, bumping his fist to Virgil's. "You've been practicing."

"Yeah?" A wonky smile. "Bet you could do better."

Richie paused, canting his head. "In theory, maybe. Doubtful in practice, I'm too klutzy."

"Give it a go," encouraged Virgil, pushing at the technopath so that he drifted forwards on his blades a few inches. "It's all about the physics, right? Besides, you've had worse than an ice bump."

"Can't hurt more than a bullet," quipped Richie, but he caught the wince from Virgil at that. While the blond had pretty much got over that episode (though he was still scared stiff of guns), the teen behind Static's mask kept blaming himself for not getting there in time to stop Jimmy shooting him and still flinched when someone mentioned it. Richie had given up trying to convince Virgil none of it was his fault in any way; the mocha teen was too stubborn to listen and accept.

Instead he said nothing else on the subject and pushed off, sliding around the outside of the lake until he felt he'd got enough of a feel for the ice and suddenly hurtled down the middle. About halfway across he brought one leg swiftly up and then just as quickly back down again, feeling the toe pick of his skate spike the ice and launch him into the air. He clasped both arms across his chest and crossed his ankles, concentrating his body mass around the rotational axis. Physics then dictated that the free leg should swing to the rear and arms should extend out again to check the rotation and control it to come out of the jump unscathed and smoothly along a strong blade edge. However, Richie found that the landing jarred him more than he had anticipated, and he hadn't fully extended his limbs to counter-balance it. His landing leg slipped out from under him and he fell to the ice with a clatter, limbs akimbo and winded.

Virgil was there like a shot, clasping his friend around the waist and helping him back up, supporting wordlessly as Richie tried to get his breath back. The blond groaned and leaned a little more into the older boy, shaking his head as Virgil disbanded his homemade lighting.

"That's the last time I take any encouragement from you," he needled teasingly, and Virgil giggled.

"Sorry, bro. You were looking amazing right up until the point you faceplanted; that was a two-and-a-half toe-loop, y'know."

"Heh, beat ya," Richie wheezed, and Virgil lead him to sit down on the side of the bank in a way that brokered no argument. He unzipped Richie's jacket, and the blond shivered at the cold air that hit him. Virgil took his gloves off and gently pressed along the ribcage testing for breaks or fractures, and another shiver washed through Richie that had nothing to do with the cold. When there was diddly-squat to be found at the ribs except a case of severe jolting Virgil moved on to examining the hips, and nearly pulled his hands away as though he burnt them when they started on a very sore part of Richie's upper left hip and a hissed "fuck OUCH" was the consequence.

It became common practice to check each other over for injuries and treat them as best they could; after all, perhaps waltzing (or crawling, depending on what the affliction was) into Dakota Union Hospital as Static and Gear wasn't the best of ideas, and was a last resort for them both. Thankfully neither of them had sustained enough damage to warrant that at any point, bar the shooting of Richie, and he wasn't Gear at the time so all was good. They knew where the most likely places were to look for injury and had studied up on how to deal with them.

That didn't stop unwarranted reactions from the now re-exploring hands of Virgil testing to see how far the bruising went. Richie tried to hide the blush as Virgil's fingers tenderly pressed down his thigh, but couldn't stop the sharp intakes of air every time his newly-bruised flesh was examined. The probing fingers left as suddenly as they started, and Richie clamped down on a noise of disappointment. The laces of his left foot boot were then untied very carefully, and the foot was even more gingerly wiggled around. A slow upwards motion bent the foot backwards, and a slow downwards motion made it bend forwards. It hurt, but nowhere near as much as if it were broken or fractured.

Virgil sat back on his haunches and looked his at his friend's rather flushed and expectant face. "You've gone and bruised yourself up pretty bad and twisted an ankle bro, but you're fine otherwise. No breaks or internal bleeding as far as I can tell."

"Thanks man." Richie zipped his jacket up again and huddled into it, keeping off his left side and the leg straight. A shuffling noise came from behind him, and two arms suddenly wrapped themselves around his waist and pulled him flush against another very warm and comfy form. "V? What are you..."

"Keeping you warm," was the simple reply, right next to Richie's ear. The breath ghosting across it felt _extremely_ nice, and he quashed another pleasant shudder. They stayed like that for a few minutes, and Richie had to admit it was working. The blond felt warm and content and soon found that he was drifting into almost a trance, relaxing completely against the form still embracing him. There was a press of something soft to his hair that made a small 'smack' sound, and it took several seconds to register that Virgil had kissed the top of his head.

When it did he turned around as best he could to face the mocha teen with wide eyes, about to say something, but was halted abruptly by the indigo flaring of Virgil's power around the teen. It made the dark skin look even darker and much more exotic, and deep brown eyes met flailing blue ones reflecting the light he was producing. Richie was at a loss for words for some time as they just continued to hold each other's gaze, neither one moving, neither one backing down and neither of them willing to break the atmosphere.

It was Richie, in the end, who spoke first. "I'm the one that should be glowing like that y'know," he murmured, and Virgil quirked a smile.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I've not been this... content in a long time."

"Me neither." Virgil brought one of the hands from around Richie's waist up to the blond's face, touching it in a way that might have suggested he was afraid Richie would shatter if he so much as did more than feather the fingertips down his cheek. "Me neither."

And with that the same lips that had kissed the top of his head now descended to his own and stayed there, keeping the contact natural and chaste.

Perfect, was the first thought to cross Richie's suddenly empty mind. Those lips... they fit his perfectly. And then he remembered who they belonged to, and just as suddenly decided it didn't matter when Virgil made to break it off and Richie didn't want him to. He grabbed Virgil's head and brought their lips back together in a much fiercer and more lustful manner than before. Virgil didn't seem to mind in the least; the hand that had traced his cheek was now buried and clenched in golden hair, and he granted Richie's silent request when the tenchnopath's tongue touched experimentally at Virgil's lips.

Richie nearly melted when Virgil's tongue answered his own's invitation to play, and he pulled closer even though he was sure it was physically impossible. Both arms wound themselves around the mocha teen's neck, and Virgil's hold around Richie's waist tightened in response. The kiss was fervent but sweet, almost desperate, like they had been holding back from doing it for so long but still weren't sure how far to take it, unsure of what the other wanted. Electricity pulsed between them, a current that felt like fire to them both and added to the fuel.

When they finally pulled away, albeit reluctantly, both were breathing heavily and unevenly, creating little white clouds between them that weaved together and floated upwards as one, as though affirming a strengthening of the bond that already existed between the two teenagers. Silence reigned for several seconds as they both tried to organize themselves.

"What was that?" asked Richie eventually, catching his breath back.

"I dunno."

"What do you mean, you don't know? You kissed me first."

Virgil gave him a pointed look. "I'm not the one who went back for seconds, man."

Richie opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it when he realized he had no retort and that his friend was right. Instead he settled for, "why?"

"The moment compelled me to, I guess." Virgil sighed and finally looked away from the blond, up to the stars twinkling mutely and a full moon hovering protectively over them both. "I was really happy about bein' able to hold you like that."

"Hence the glowing," Richie put two and two together to a nod of confirmation.

"I don't know why, but when you turned around to me I realized I couldn't hold back, not anymore. I did what seemed right to me." Brown eyes lowered to meet bright blue ones once more. "It felt like more than that, though."

"Like I was made for you and you for me," finished Richie with a small smile, bringing slim fingers to rest on the other's cheek. "I know." Virgil's aura sparked at that, and he bent until their lips were just a hair's breadth apart.

"Show me again."

"Gladly," was whispered back, and the gap was sealed just as large, fluffy flakes of snow started drifting lazily down from the heavens around the two teens discovering just how deep their bond to one another really went.

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**Rae:** So, anyone ready to see the dentist yet? ;)

Hope you liked it, Krys! x


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